The Lakers, for much of the season, were pathetic. Worse than Portland. Then they made some moves at the trade deadline and now they’re probably going to the Western Conference Finals. Portland, on the other hand, decided to tank for the second year in a row. Why? Because Portland can’t make moves like those of the Lakers. Ever notice how many bad teams get better while Portland hovers around mediocrity year after year? This is why.
Westbrook is such a negative player, especially when paired with two elite forwards that need good shooting teammates. Lakers won the title 3 years ago so it's just obvious they had more potential with average role players. Even if you plug average role players on the Blazers they weren't close to contending as the Lakers are. Maybe they'd have made the playoffs or won a round. Perhaps that's the only goal you'd like to see. I'd prefer risking away that chance to possibly get another Shae.
Why are people surprised? This happens to Lebron teams practically every season (at least since he left Miami). His teams underperform in the first half of the season, he moans and bitches, the GM makes a big shakeup at the deadline, the team gels in the second half and makes it to the finals. Almost every year! Go back and look.
Two teams with a similar record at the break, but with totally different roster situations. The Lakers have two All-Stars, but had stupidly gutted their role players to sign Westbrook. They did what was needed to fix that problem by finding trades to dump Russ, bring in Russell and role players. The Blazers need another star to pair with Dame. Cronin needs assets to accomplish that. His moves at the deadline were aimed at the future by nabbing a first for Hart and bringing in a couple of young guys with upside. Those moves also ensured that the Blazers would lose (a lot) and improve the value of their own draft pick. Cronin did what he had to to have a shot at building a contender around Dame. Now we get to see if he can pull it off.
I feel like we just had this conversation in another thread. LeBron and AD are still one of the best duos in the NBA. It’s a championship foundation. They just didn’t have a good supporting cast. Their GM went out and added a handful of very good role players at the deadline. Our core foundation is Dame/Ant/Grant. That’s a mediocre foundation. Adding role players would make no difference. So instead we traded our role players. We moved Hart and GP2. Those are guys who can be rotation players on championship teams. We clearly couldn’t use them right now.
Hahaha you can’t be serious. The Lakers had one MAJOR flaw and a minor one. We have, at minimum, 3 major flaws. 1) Piss poor defense 2) total lack of depth AND size AND experience 3) Don’t have a second star, much less a “third star” that we could trade to solve pretty much all our issues AND get a former all-star in return
Yep, thanks a lot Ainge. If the Lakers somehow win the damn thing, Ainge should get a freakin' Laker ring.
No that is exactly why we tanked! To get out of mediocrity. To get one of those young stars that always make teams pass us- Ja, Embiid, Giannis, Luka, all drafted. That’s why teams pass us. The Lakers MAY go to the WCF and if they do, it’s because they have a healthy LeBron/AD and got rid of Westbrook who ruined spacing. You forget Lakers won title three years ago. The Blazers are not on that level. Adding Rui and Vanderbilt wouldn’t have gotten us in the WCF.
